Women S and Gender Studies Courses

FALL 2008 GRADUATE WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES COURSES

ANTH/WMNS 808 (001) Cross - Cultural Mentoring Credits: 3 DiBernard and Willis Call No. 9135 M 3:30 – 5:00 p.m., plus at least one hour per week at North Star High School (to be arranged)

This course is a structured internship. You will be paired with a North Star High School student from an immigrant or refugee family as a mentor and will meet with your mentee at North Star at least once a week during school hours. We ask that you make a 2-semester commitment to this mentorship because of the needs of the students. During the fall semester, we will meet as a class once a week for an hour and a half. We will read and discuss several ethnographies of recent U.S. immigrant communities. As you begin your mentoring, you will also use our group meetings to report on how it’s going, and for us to brainstorm and share resources with each other. Mentees will need different things, so you might be called on to help with homework, help your student get a job, fill out financial aid forms or college applications, figure out how to keep a student motivated for schoolwork, as well as be a friend. During the second semester, you can obtain from 2-3 credits by continuing your mentoring, meeting once a month as a group, and possibly doing additional reading and research on your mentee’s culture or on mentoring. REQUIREMENTS: In the fall: read several ethnographies, meet weekly, write a weekly journal on your mentoring experience, research your mentee’s culture, and present a PowerPoint to the class. In the spring: meet once a month, write a weekly journal, write a final reflection on your mentoring experience. For those of you who want to put some of your WGS study into practice, this is an excellent opportunity! UNL students are paired with mentees of the same sex, and a gender lens is definitely useful in this work. In addition, you will be learning about another country and possibly a culture and religion within that country through research as well as interaction with your mentee (and through our readings first semester and the reports of your student colleagues). WGS students have participated in this internship for 2 years now and have found it a powerful learning experience. One mentor wrote: “Looking back at my journals I have come to the conclusion that this has been my most challenging class but it has been the most rewarding I have had thus far in my academic career. There has been no other setting in my learning experience that has made me look this deep into the world around me

Fall Graduate Courses and there has never been a class that has made me look inside myself and see my own flaws, strengths and privileges as this one has.” If you have questions or want more information, please call or email Barbara DiBernard at 472-1828 or [email protected].

Women and Men: An Anthropological Perspective ANTH/WMNS 810 (001) Credits: 3 Draper MW 5:30 – 6:45 p.m. Call No. 1607 This course covers cross-cultural variation in gender roles in societies of different levels of socio- cultural complexity and considers the influence of societal scale, economy, and political organization on gender asymmetry. Biological factors in human gender roles and the theories of evolutionary ecology are also treated.

Women in Design ARCH 581 (001) Call No. 1759 ARCH 881 (001) Call No. Suppressed Kuska TR 3:00 – 4:15 p.m. Credits: 3 Aim: This course will study historical and contemporary contributions by women to the design professions related to the built environment. It will seek to examine the roles and values of women in design and their impact on the assumptions and issues currently held by the profession. We will evaluate design work by and about women seen in their aesthetic and intellectual context, and identify a feminist perspective and how it affects the workplace. Requirements: In-class participation, informal response journal, discussion, brochure, research project and presentation. Tentative Reading List: Berkeley and McQuaid, Architecture: A Place for Women; Hughes, ed., The Architect: Reconstructing Her Practice; selected readings from journals and books.

Behavioral and Social Factors in Environmental Design ARCH 556 (001) Call No. 1730 ARCH 856 (001) Call No. Suppressed Potter TR 9:30 a.m. – 10:45 p.m. Credits: 3 A comprehensive survey of theory, methods, research and findings from the social and behavioral sciences as they relate to architecture, interior design and regional and community planning. The course includes readings related to building evaluation, the work environment, housing issues, the social meaning of architecture as well as environment-behavior theory. The intent of the course is to seek ways to apply the findings and principles found in the research to solving problems in architecture, interior designs and community planning.

Fall Graduate Courses ENGL 813 (001) GLBT Film History and Queer Theory Credits: 3 Foster TR 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Call No. Suppressed Additional film screenings will be assigned *NOTE: This class counts toward the LGBTQ/Sexuality minor credit, but the student must complete a substitution form with Rose Holz or Barbara DiBernard. To register, contact Jan Jarvis at 472-2866, stop in at the English Advising Center, 123 Andrews, or email Jan at [email protected] For a course description, contact Professor Gwen Foster or the English Department. ENGL 914 (001) Women of the Harlem Renaissance Credits: 3 Honey T 2:30 - 4:50 p.m. Call No. 8988 Aim: This seminar will focus on women writers and celebrities of the Harlem Renaissance, a period roughly defined as the 1920's extending into the 1930's. We will be looking at the legacy of slavery and Reconstruction as it affected cultural production of African American women in the early twentieth century as well as themes emerging from the Harlem Renaissance itself. We will also be looking at the larger context for black women writers at this time, including the issues of feminism and modernism. Finally, we will be locating the Harlem Renaissance in the African American literary tradition generally and black women’s writing specifically. Teaching Method: Discussion Requirements: A seminar paper of 20-25 pages in length on a related topic of the student’s choice. Tentative Reading List: I have not yet decided on the reading, but some probable choices include Plum Bun by Jessie Fauset; Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Shadowed Dreams: Women’s Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance ed. Honey; Color, Sex, and Poetry by Gloria Hull; Women of the Harlem Renaissance by Cheryl Wall; Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance by Houston Baker; When Harlem Was in Vogue by David Levering Lewis; and Double-Take: A Revisionist Harlem Renaissance Anthology eds. Patton and Honey.

FREN 898 (002) Special Topics: Eroticism Credits: 3 Ganim TR 3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Call No. Suppressed Permission of Professor Ganim (Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures) is required to take this course. Readings will be in French. This course examines issues of gender and sexuality in early modern French literature. From a psychoanalytical and cultural perspective, the seminar focuses on what constitutes the "feminine" in a culture where female identity is defined by rigid social norms. Works from both female and male authors will be examined across a variety of genres from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. The question of how notions of the female link to concepts of the early modern will figure prominently in both our critical approach and in our textual analysis.

Fall Graduate Courses History of Women and Gender in the American West HIST/WMNS 848 (001) Credits: 3 Jacobs MWF 2:30 – 3:20 p.m. Call No. 8115 Prerequisite: Junior standing. The American West provides a prime arena in which to study how interactions between people of different backgrounds have transformed one another’s gender systems and thereby drastically altered women’s lives and status. Through examining three main currents that brought together people of different backgrounds in the West -- conquest and colonialism, migration and immigration, and reform and activism -- we will explore the ways in which women’s experiences and gender systems in the American West have changed from 1500 to the present.

Black and/or African-American Women’s History HIST/WMNS 856 (001) Credits: 3 Jones TR 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. Call No. 8149 Prerequisite: Junior standing. This course is aimed at exploring the history of women of African descent in the Americas, with a particular focus on the United States. We will begin studying black women’s experiences from their African origins before the rise of the transatlantic slave trade. Then the course will focus on black women’s history from enslavement to the present day. Since the course will cover a vast chronological period, this course is designed as an overview of black women’s history. It will address such topics as black women’s resistance, labor, cultural expression, religion, racial identity (in comparative perspective), and sexuality, through an exploration of a range of primary sources, secondary sources, films, and documentaries. Pedagogically, this course will be taught from a feminist/womanist perspective, which recognizes the experiences of black women as singular and particular, when viewed through the lenses of gender and race. This is not to say that the experiences of all women in America did not and do not intersect at some point; rather that the experience of black women is distinct because of the legacy of slavery and the realities of racism and sexism in American culture and society.

PSYC/WMNS 821 (001) Psychology of Gender Credits: 3 Crockett TR 12:30 - 1:45 p.m. Call No. 9052 Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in Psychology or permission from the instructor, Dr. Lisa Crockett, [email protected] This course examines psychological research and theory related to gender, with a particular focus on the ways in which gender impacts people’s day-to-day lives. First, we will consider the origins of gender in factors such as biology, stereotypes, human development, and the media. Next, we will consider how gender influences ability and achievement, work, sexuality, and relationships. Finally, we will discuss the ways that gender relates to interpersonal violence and mental and physical health. Throughout the course, we will emphasize the importance of race and culture in understanding gender.

Fall Graduate Courses PSYC 871 (001) Human Sexuality and Society Credits: 3 Esseks TR 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. Call No. 6959 An interdisciplinary approach to the study of human sexuality in terms of the psychological, social, cultural, anthropological, legal, historical, and physical characteristics of individual sexuality and sex in society.

TEAC 944 A (001) Curriculum As Aesthetic Text Credits: 3 Latta T 6:00 – 8:50 p.m. Call No. 7756 Overview: Within the creating process lives a worthwhile direction, a medium, for learning and teaching that asks teachers and students to participate through adapting, changing, building and creating meaning. This is the nature of curriculum as aesthetic text. Curriculum is seen as genuine inquiry into what is worth knowing, rather than simply a curricular document. But, what does this mean for learners and teachers? This question will be pursued from many perspectives, across disciplines, and grade levels. This course is intended to provide a space for all educators wishing to pursue aesthetic considerations seriously in their teaching/learning practices such as experimentation, observation, intuitive responses, mistakes as a route to learning, and non-linear ways of working. We will explore the necessary conditions to foster and sustain curriculum as aesthetic text, along with beliefs, practices, and traditions surrounding the nature of the aesthetic. The primary texts are two mid-later works of the philosopher and educator, John Dewey, alongside the texts of contemporary thinkers reinterpreting the perspective of John Dewey. Format: This course will function as a seminar with two principle aims:  To become more familiar with the beliefs, practices, and traditions of aesthetic education.  To begin to understand what these findings suggest regarding the nature of curriculum, attending to differences, and the role of learners and teachers. Required texts: Experience and Education, John Dewey; Art As Experience, John Dewey

*TXCD 807 (001) History of Costume Credits: 3 Trout MF 11:00 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Call No. 7914 Theoretical approach to the history of dress from ancient times through the twentieth century; examining dress in the context of social, economic, and artistic development of Western culture.

Socio-psychological Aspects of Clothing TXCD810/WMNS 810A (001) Credits: 3 McLeod T 6:00 – 8:50 p.m. Call No. 9054 Prerequisite: Senior Standing Aim: To understand how a soc-psych examination of clothing, and more broadly appearance, helps us understand human behavior, and to understand how research is conducted, analyzed and used. Class will examine how and why individuals and groups use dress and adornment as a means of

Fall Graduate Courses expression. Students will be able to integrate concepts regarding individual and group dynamics in analyzing observed behavior. Teaching Method: Research projects, reports, group presentations Requirements: Research project, journal of field notes, group assignments, attendance, and active participation Tentative Reading List: Kaiser, The Social Psychology of Clothing

WMNS 885 (001) Feminist Theories, Feminists’ Perspectives Credits: 3 Holz W 2:30 – 4:50 p.m. *Call No. Suppressed *PERMISSION OF WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES PROGRAM ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ROSE HOLZ, [email protected], 472-9380 IS REQUIRED IN ORDER TO REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE Essential to any discipline is the theoretical framework upon which it is based. Essential also are the people who have helped create these ideas and put them into practice. For these reasons the class will work in this way. Although I will be leading the course more generally, each week will feature a Women’s and Gender Studies faculty member who will lead discussion on a feminist/gender theory texts which profoundly influenced her/his own personal development: as an individual, citizen, and scholar. What such a framework allows are several important things. In part it introduces students to some important texts. But it especially drives home the ways in which theory does indeed influence practice: in terms of what we choose to study; the questions we then ask; and how in turn we carry our research out. In other words, in this class we will read a broad range of theoretical texts and struggle with them together. We will come to know each other on a personal and a professional basis, forging important bridges upon which such a scholarly community must be based. And we will get to see first-hand the ways in which knowledge is created and then applied, with the hopes of building a framework of our own, one which is informed by our many interdisciplinary perspectives. Please be advised that this course will have a heavy reading and writing load. Call number is also suppressed, so please contact me (Rose Holz) at 402.472.9380 or [email protected] if you wish to enroll.

Internship in Women’s and Gender Studies WMNS 897 (001) Credits: 1-6 Jacobs Arranged Call No. Suppressed Students may gain practical knowledge in applying concepts learned in WGS classes in a service- learning opportunity with such organizations as Voices of Hope, Friendship Home, the YWCA, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU. The internship will engage students with particular issues including workplace discrimination against women, prejudice faced by lesbian and gay couples, violence against women, and women’s reproductive health. Together with an on-site internship supervisor and a WGS faculty member, students will design and sign a contract that defines the number of hours to be spent at the organization, types of work, assignments, and how the student will be evaluated and graded. For more information, contact the Women’s and Gender Studies office at 472-9392, or Margaret Jacobs at [email protected]

Fall Graduate Courses